GP out of hours care improving

GP out of hours care improving

Care Quality Commission inspectors reveal that GO out of hours care across England is improving, although weaknesses are still apparent in some areas.

The review of 30 services, which covers a third of the population, highlighted problems with recruitment processes and medicines management, although generally concluding that services were on the whole safe and well-led.

A couple of problem areas mentioned included not being compliant on recruitment processes and not storing or checking medicine stocks correctly, however these weren’t deemed serious enough to warrant formal action.

GP review

Chief inspector Prof Steve Field told BBC News “At the start of our inspections, I did not have high hopes about the quality of out-of-hours care. However, I am delighted that these inspections have shown that in most cases the care people receive is safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led.”

Dr Chaand Nagpaul, of the British Medical Association, agreed the the report was “encouraging”, but said it only gave a “partial picture” of out-of-hours care as it did not include the new 111 telephone service where he believed there were problems.